With the advent of substantial new uses for high bandwidth digital and analog electro-optic systems, there exists a greater need to effectively control the routing and switching capability of optical signals from among many possible paths. This is especially true in digital computing systems where signals must be routed among processors; in analog systems such as phased array radar; and in the switching of high bandwidth optical carriers in communication systems. However, it should be realized that these are just several of numerous electro-optic systems which require the use of an optical switching mechanism.
Most optical switching is performed utilizing MEMS mirrors or opto-electronic switches fabricated on materials like lithium niobate. Such switches are either expensive or bulky or complex. Some compact switches have been constructed for a given number of inputs and outputs but typically the designs do not scale to a larger number of inputs and outputs and these switches typically exhibit high loss. There is a need for optical switches that are compact, linearly scalable and low loss.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide compact optical switch designs.
It is a further object of this invention to provide compact optical switch designs that scale linearly with the number of inputs.